BANT to submit to Privy Council an Addendum to its Counter Petition against the application for a Royal Charter by the Association for Nutrition

On 2 January 2020 BANT submitted its Counter Petition to the Privy Council in respect of an application for a Royal Charter by the Association for Nutrition (AfN).

As part of informal consultations during summer 2019 BANT questioned AfN’s inclusion of a specialist Healthcare-Medical Register for which there were no published standards and no registrants. AfN responded to the Privy Council Office:

"This new Healthcare-Medical specialism of the Register will be open for applications this summer following the final stages of work with the GMC, when procedures relating to reciprocal arrangements for fitness to practice have been agreed."

In October 2019 AfN published knowledge and competency statements for GMC registrants who routinely give nutrition advice. BANT therefore filed an FOI with the General Medical Council to ascertain what had been agreed with AfN on reciprocal fitness to practise arrangements. The GMC have responded that there had been no communication with the Association for Nutrition on the matter. The AfN statement to the Privy Council would therefore appear to have had no basis in fact.

BANT can confirm that, at the suggestion of the Privy Council Office, it is now submitting an addendum to its Counter Petition of 2 January.